2000

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.0001 Monday, 3 January 2000.
From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, January 3, 2000
Subject: New Year's Greetings
Dear SHAKSPEReans,
Happy New Year to all!
After a few days of relative peace and relaxation (trying as very much
as I could to put anything business related out of my mind), I am ready
to resume daily SHAKSPER digests and spend some time working, much to my
editors pleasures I am sure, on long-promised but not fully delivered
work of my own, before returning to the grueling and unrewarding job of
chair of my department.
A bit on the past, the SHAKSPER listserv was activated on July 16,
1990. Founder Ken Steele sent the first official SHAKSPER digest ten
days later. Ken Steele, then a graduate student at the University of
Toronto and now a highly successful graphic artist and computer
entrepreneur and still a member of SHAKSPER, talked to a core of us at
the 1990 SAA Meeting in Philadelphia who became the founding members
about his idea for a listserv modeled upon HUMANIST that would serve the
Shakespeare academic community. I became SHAKSPER's co-editor in
February 1992 and editor in June of 1992. January 4, 1996 (Vol. 7. No.
1), marked the first transmission of digests from Bowie State
University, my current institution. Despite the July founding date,
January 1 has always marked the beginning of the next year's volume, so
today we begin Volume 11.
A bit on the present, today we have approximately 1,400 members,
currently from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada,
China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France,
Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guam, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi
Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey,
Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. If you would like
a list of the members, send the command GET SHAKSPER MEMBERS to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Last year, I decided to celebrate this occasion by going into the
SHAKSPER archives and pulling a few of the New Year's Greetings from the
past. If you are interested in reading this very long post, send the
command GETPOST SHAKSPER 7460 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
I thank all of you for your support and contributions that keep SHAKSPER
alive.
I especially thank the members of the Senior SHAKSPER Advisory Board
(Michael Best, Tom Bishop, Edna Z. Boris, Ralph Alan Cohen, Kurt Daw,
Roy Flannagan, Phyllis Gorfain, Terence Hawkes, Dale Lyles, Cary M.
Mazer, Michael Mullin, David Schalkwyk, and Raymond Siemens) and the
SHAKSPER Editorial Advisory Board (Edna Z. Boris, Richard Burt, John
Drakakis, Peter S. Donaldson, Lois Feuer, Roy Flannagan, Phyllis
Gorfain, Sean Lawrence, Todd M. Lidh, Arthur D. L. Lindley, Eric Luhrs,
Karen Peterson-Kranz, Jan Powell, Joseph Tate, and William Williams).
These two boards have been extremely helpful in matters of advising me
on policy, reviewing papers for the SHAKSPER fileserver, and hearing my
grips about the state of my life. I would be remiss if I did not single
out Dale Lyles for extra praise. Dale has selflessly and for a long time
fielded those many questions that arrive to SHAKSPER from high school
students. Thank you all.
Well, back to work,
Hardy